1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, in which conditioned air having different states from each other pass through respective air passages partitioned by a partition plate and are simultaneously blown out from plural air outlets into a passenger compartment. Particularly, the present invention relates to an arrangement of the partition plate for partitioning the air passages.
2. Related Arts
Conventionally, an air conditioning apparatus in which air flows having different states such as temperature or humidity from each other are respectively blown out from plural air outlets has been known as disclosed in JP-A-60-8105. In this air conditioning apparatus, it is possible to prevent the heating efficiency from deteriorating as well as the windshield from being clouded in a heating operation.
In the air conditioning apparatus disclosed in JP-A-60-8105, an interior of a case is divided into an outside air passage and an inside air passage by partition plates, and an evaporator, a heater core portion which is a half of the heater core and divided by a partition plate, and a fan are disposed in each of the air passages. Accordingly, the inside air and the outside air can pass through the evaporator and the heater core without being mixed with each other. Therefore, the inside air after being conditioned can be blown out into the passenger compartment from a foot air outlet, and the outside air after being conditioned, humidity of which is low, can be blown out from a defroster air outlet.
However, according to examinations by the inventors, turns out that separation characteristics for separating air flows passing into the respective air passages is deteriorated, depending on the arrangement of the partition plates.